Leaderboard

I missed all this. Drama! This reminds of the guy who did all those MY LITTLE PONY threads on FSM, and who attacked the board after his interest was not validated. He was eventually banned. It's a shame that it turns out that way, but I think we need to remember that there are individuals behind these screen names, and they may have issues that we're not aware of. Clearly, in this case he felt attacked (I only read the JUNGLE BOOK thread where he was involved), and decided to attack in return. It was totally out-of-line, of course, but for some people, it's an almost physical reaction. Banning was an appropriate response in this case (and I think he prepared for it when he did this thread), but let's not dance on people's graves. Again, they are humanbeings.

I love this theory...

Romijn might not have done those acrobatic stunts herself but she had that special presence, elegance and appearance. Those elements made up the character.

The way Romijn moves is very important to the performance. Like a predator, but also with a certain fluent grace. It's more a physical acting performance then one based on dialogue. It kind of reminds me how Robert Patrick made his T-1000 distinctive by the way of body language.

.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006). Hadnt seen this in years so it was nice to revisit. Despite the fact that it's a fictionalised telling of the Tan War and subsequent Civil War I find it to be a much more accurate portrayal of that period of Irish history than the earlier Michael Collins by Neill Jordan. All the major events in it are based on actual events from the period too so that adds to the legitimacy I guess. Does a great job of portraying how bloodthirsty and crazed the Tans were. It's beautifully shot and the Irish countryside looks great. The colour has that lovely "it's just finished pissing rain" look about it so it looks like Ireland and not just a Hollywood representation of it. The DVD suffers on a 50 inch screen though. Would love to see a nice Blu-Ray transfer. No word about one any time soon and this year being the 10th anniversary, and 100th of the Rising, would have made it the obvious choice. Oh well. Cillian Murphy and Liam Cunningham are excellent in it. Love that there's a bit of hurling at the start too. Score is nice but it's lightly scored. The inclusion of the song that gives the film its title is nice as is the use of Óró, sé do bheatha 'bhaile.

To be fair, it generally isn't easy to find good consistent form in Burton since he is the second most overrated filmmaker in Hollywood.

Do you guys think it is pure coincidence, or is it like that on purpose? Because those two phrases (especially second one) have been bugging me since the first time I have heard Rey's Theme. I also haven't seen it mentioned on the forums earlier, but might have as well missed it. My guess is that Williams is giving us clue about Rey's bloodline here. Am I over-interpreting? rey.mp3

Not by me it isn't. I think it's his best.

The film is shit, but I like the music a lot. 2005 was a pseudo return to his Nightmare Before Christmas template with that and Corpse Bride.

Korngold's swashbuckling music owes quite a bit to Strauss (there's also some great stuff like this in Rosenkavalier) and Puccini.

Oscar and Lucinda by Thomas Newman: Among my favourite Newman scores along with Road to Perdition, Shawshank Redemption and Angels in America it contains again his trademarks of intriguing but engaging atmospheric writing, gorgeous melodies and unique handling of the orchestra. This one also employs the choir and boy soloist to a good effect on a few cues (Prince Rupert's Drop - Main Title, Church of Glass and Oscar and Lucinda (End Title)) where Newman combines its spiritual power with surprising but wonderful jazzy thematic inflections of the main theme. The score also sports several brisk scherzos short but to the point with equally wonderful driving melodic invention as the lyrical thematic ideas. These wonderful moody melodies are interspersed throughout the album and are mostly carried by Newman standard instruments of choice for such things, the woodwinds. Very few can write such beautiful longing into musical form, whether romantic yearning, tender reminiscence or nostalgia. I urge to give this one a listen as even though it might not win you over instantly it amply rewards subsequent listens. How to Make an American Quilt

Didn't think this project was even on the table anymore. Glad to hear it since, regardless of the recent critical woes of the director, I was looking forward to seeing it.

After listening to Secret of NIMH a couple of times I really have to agree. It does have that "Hollywood fantasy spectacle is here" vibe to it. To my ears Horner's music might have come to stand for this on a more general level as well. Lincoln by John Williams: I love the soothing tender quality which permeates most of this score. Sure it might enhance some of the hagiographic qualities of the film but there is also simple emotional honesty to it, feeling like Williams' own personal gut reaction to Lincoln as a person, the composer trying to capture much of his different facets with his score in addition to giving the burnished patina of stately respectability to him. The soloist work in particular gives a lovely intimacy to the whole work with Chicago Symphony and their individual members (and Randy Kerber on piano) providing their considerable talent to the task and giving their best. P.S. Trumpet Hymn (found on the FYC album) might contain some of the most emotionally resonant trumpet work I have heard in years, that little over a minute being a stunning showcase of Christopher Martin's gift.

He never seemed terribly interesting to me. I've read Infinity War comic book ages ago and it made very little impression on me. Too grandiose to be really relatable. The bigger those stories get, the clunkier everything becomes. So far Marvel managed to scale down its universe to manageable size that could still serve its characters. I'm not sure how is this gigantic movie is supposed to work. I really can't imagine how it could be successful and also include every single character already established (when the second Avengers film is already struggling with juggling its cast and subplots). Karol

We're not looking for single items. We are looking to raid every computer and physical medium in our reach, until the last disc.

It's a bit of an exaggeration, but there are moments where traditional Shore action rhythms are just orchestrated in a very un-Shore-an way. With the bass being at the forefront, the rhythms having little modulation, the percussion sounding as dry as a tin can (something that Shore would usually be very particular about...I mean this is a guy who's rumoured to have spent an hour trying to get the Bodhran sound right in a concert rehearsal). Will quote specific examples later.

I reckon it was a case of PJ not wanting to go to London for a few weeks so late in the post-production stage (you look at the making-of DoS and BotFA, with them going right until the last minute, and wonder how the hell he could have done it). Wanting it all 'in-house', so to speak, he wished it to be moved to Wellington, and Shore - for various reasons (perhaps including the AUJ issues, perhaps being miffed that his traditional process was being changed, perhaps not enthused by the long flights) - didn't want to go there for that length of time. If anything, I have to think Shore is a true professional - a trooper - and can't see him throwing his toys out the pram and being the one who initiated the change. I'd say it was more likely to be a PJ directive.

Where do you draw the line? Of course Shore WROTE the music, but on the podium, I strongly assume changes are made to bars, to orchestration (that we know as a fact), maybe arrangement, which obviously affects the composition. Say what you want, but in BotFA, more so than in DoS (a lot more), you hear that it was someone else laying the touches on Shore's music. And that's a big reason why a lot of it feels off, in the sense that it doesn't segue into the FotR sound, like, at all. BotFA is, in terms of sound, miles away from it, even more so than DoS. I almost don't dare say it, but BotFA sounds like Pope beefing up Shore's orchestration sketches because he thought they were too plain, when in fact, this surgical precision in orchestration choices - using what you need to achieve a certain sound - is what made LotR and AUJ so special. BotFA's orchestrations sound often so same-y to me. And that's really the point where Pope tried to think Shore's thoughts, and that's where lots of Middle-Earth authenticity was lost.

.

What I remember, is that the motif in question accompanies prominent First Order moments (initially: Star Destroyer shadow, the attack on the village, Finn's reaction shot to the atrocities, etc..), and I don't recall it ever playing under scenes not featuring the First Order... It's about as prominent as Star Wars' imperial motif (albeit more sinister, and less martial, in character). ...At any rate, the motif consistently functions as a harbinger of the First Order's presence. I don't know how specific Williams necessarily treats these smaller thematic snippets; there are plenty of them throughout the Star Wars saga, and some of them seem to relate to characters in a perhaps broader, less literally leitmotivic sense. Perhaps it's a sort of "tragedy of war" motif, or another motif related to the dark side. Importantly, it consists of two minor thirds a minor second apart, and as I keep observing, that interval (min 3rd) seems absolutely symphonically vital to Williams' TFA score. I don't know what it means, but I'm pretty sure it had structural significance for its composer, if not for movie audiences or more casual listeners.